Girtfolk
The Girtfolk (Kú."i-kilta") were the people of "Girt-by-the-sea", in the second Age originally a númenórean prison Colony known as "kilta-Azranud",located on the southeastern coast of southernesse's great east-continent.The Númenórean's main interest had been in the gold found in the local mountains and rivers , so for generations they transferred an entire enslaved population, mostly from western Eriador, Gondor and Harad to the newly founded place to mine the precious material under their supervision instead of having to conquer and enslave the shy and scarce local population.With the drowning of Númenor however the colony lost almost all contact to it's former masters and eventually evolved into a small realm on it's own.Even when the original Girt-by-the-sea was destroyed and conquered by the Northern invaders who forced much of the population to flee inland, where they established "Inland Girt" (Kú."Zainada-kilta"). Appearance Many of the Girtfolks ancestors came from the coasts of northwestern Middle-Earth and not a few of them actually had been exiled Faithful from Andunie, also most of the original settler's guardians had been men who had fallen out of favour with the king and who would rather take wives from among the middle-men than from the darker folk of Harad or southernesse.This black númenórean racism towards men not akin to the edain had deeply influenced the Girtfolk's culture for generations and so they rarely intermixed with the indigenious old ones, whom they largely drove away from their dominion, but stayed among themselves, evolving into a homogenous culture of quite exotic appearance to most of the neigbouring mannish cultures from the inner sea, as they were still after centuries remarkably light skinned, though with a permanent tan, and often even of fair hair.Also they were mostly taller than the native old ones and even most of the local Haradrim or Easterling peoples from the utter south, the southern archipelago or the bay of ormal. Culture Through the impact of their númenórean masters, the culture of Girtland was quite sophisticated.They were superb smiths, builders and crafters and able cultivators of the soil.The upper class yet, was still mostly of black númenórean descend, while the rural population was more directly descending from the slaves of haradrim and eriadorian heritage.Centuries had started to blurr the differences between the two, but strong conservatism and racism still remained influential in the worldview of the nobility and parts of the lower free or semi-free classes , who had incorporated this order into their own ideology. Language The Girtmen spoke their own language "Girtlandish" or "Kiltanaic" (Kú."Kiltâni"), a descendant of late Adûnaic with many loanwords from other languages, but used Kùrúdfarî for communication with outlanders. Religion The original religion of Girt-by-the sea had been the Dark Cult of Alkar, but among the slaves and labourers their older beliefs had remained strong and those of Faithful descend had taught them about the Valar and Eru. In the end a number of superstitious, mixed local Cults emerged among them the Gold-Cult, the Blood-drinker-cult, the sun-sword-cult, the Cults of Nisyen and Efnisyen,the cult of the one-person, the elementalist cult, the cat-cult, the necromantic Cult, the Ulmic Cult and other minor ones. Warcraft Due to their ancestors legacy of smithcraft and knowledge the Girtfolk was the only culture in all of southernesse which could boast of some advanced technology.Though much had been lost in the years of chaos and reconciliation, still the Girtlanders forged excellent blades and knew of the use of heavy armour.Their Soldiers were well-trained and, though their population was still comparatively small, were a match to most would-be raiders or invaders. Notes Based on: Middle-Earth Down Under: An Antipodean Campaign by Norman Talbot (Department of English, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, Newcastle, NSW 2308, Australia) ©1994 Norman Talbot; first published in Other Hands 4. Category:Southernesse Category:Dark Land Category:Wild peoples of the east and south